1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network management system, and more particularly, to a network management system capable of supporting a variety of protocols (multi-protocols) used to manage network equipment by converting a management message structure into meta data, and a management message used in the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, as network scale increases, demand for complexity, inter-operability, speed, and flexibility is increasing, and thus it is necessary to be able to check whether a network is operating efficiently and normally. Here, a software management tool for managing a large-scale network makes its entrance, and a protocol for communicating with network hardware, and a program (agent) residing and operating in network equipment, are needed. So, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines network management functions (FCAPS) such as Fault Management, Configuration Management, Security Management, Performance Management, and Accounting Management, which are to be performed by the network management system.
Such a network system for embodying network management functions is comprised of an agent 1, a network management system 2, a network management protocol, and management information 3, as shown in FIG. 1A.
First, the agent 1 refers to a program used in equipment to be controlled in the network, and can be included in a host system comprised of various kinds of servers (file server, application server, communication server, and the like), a workstation, a main frame, a printer, and other peripherals, network equipment such as a router, a switch, a hub, a gateway, and other apparatuses, and a media device that is related with a cable system, topology, and the like.
Further, the network management system 2 refers to a station that receives management messages from the agent 1 and drives the network management application to perform network management directly.
Further, the network management protocol is used to exchange useful information between the equipment to be managed and the management station, and representative standard protocols include Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Transaction Language 1 (TL1), and so on.
Further, the management information 3 refers to a collection of information that can be assessed through the network management protocol, and representative management information is Management Information Base (MIB).
Here, since a variety of equipment has to be managed simultaneously in the network management system, in most cases the above-described kinds of equipment use different management protocols. Accordingly, in order to support various protocols in the network management system, messages have generally come to be expressed as one of the following two types:
First, in a protocol-specific type, each protocol is defined as a specific type as shown in FIG. 1B. And then when a corresponding type of message arrives from an external system, it is converted to correspond to a protocol type and used.
However, in the network management system using a conventional protocol-specific type, development is progressing toward using one kind of protocol in most cases. In the event that a new protocol is needed, a new message class is usually embodied at the point of time the new protocol is needed. In which case, since there is no alternative choice but to bring changes into a conventional communication scheme or message type, the entire system should be corrected.
Second, in a protocol-generic type, a message type with which SNMP, CORBA, and TL1 message types can be expressed is defined as shown in FIG. 1C, and messages transmitted from an external system are converted into a single type and used.
However, since the network management system using the conventional protocol-generic type should have information used in all kinds of protocols, not only does the message type become overcomplicated, but in the case of performing a task using only one protocol an unnecessary load is placed on the system. Furthermore, in the case of using a proprietary protocol or a new protocol not included in the original design, contents are added to a corresponding class and the corrected class cannot have backward compatibility, so the existing system needs to be retested.